Black Community Information Center

Monthly Archives: August 2016

Two men were charged Thursday in the death of Zaevion Dobson, 15, of Knoxville,Tennessee, who died during an amazing act of courage.

Christopher Bassett and Richard Williams were charged with first-degree murder charges in Dobson’s death, including the attempted murder of eight other people, WATEreports. Bassett and Williams are each being held on a $1 million bond.

A spokesperson for the Knox County district attorney’s office announced additional charges for employing a firearm during a first-degree murder and attempted murder. According WATE, Bassett faces an additional charge of possessing a handgun as a felon.

Dobson, was a beloved member of the Knoxville, Tennessee community, known as a fun-loving football player at Fulton High School.

On December 17, Dobson along with a group of friends, including his brother Zack, were caught in the aftermath of a drive-by shooting. Dobson shielded two female friends, Faith Gordon, 17, and Kiara Rucker, 16, and was fatally wounded.

Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot. He was a hero at 15. What’s …read more

ACalifornia mother and father are devastated after a hospital reportedly removed their 2-year-old son from life support last week following a long legal battle.

Officials at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles removed Israel Stinson, 2, from life support on Thursday after a judge upheld the decision, writes the Los Angeles Times.

The child’s parents,Jonee Fonseca and Nathaniel Stinson, had “sought an injunction to prevent the hospital from taking action while they rushed to make arrangements to put him in home care,” writes the news outlet:

On Tuesday, the hospital informed Israel’s mother that they would file a motion to oppose the injunction, and on Thursday the motion was filed. The family’s struggle to save Israel ended when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Amy D. Hogue ruled in favor of the hospital’s decision, and immediately following the ruling, Israel’s ventilator was removed.

“I was on the phone with his mother when the doctors disconnected him,” Alexandra Snyder, an attorney with the Life Legal Defense Foundation, said Friday. The pro-life group is representing Israel’s family pro bono. “They were in such a hurry to do it, they didn’t even sit down and explain what was going on.”

Muskogee, Oklahoma police are currently investigating their own for pepper-spraying an 84-year-old woman in her home, while they searching for her son.

According to Fox 23 News, last week, officers were chasing Geneva Smith’s son when he ran into her house. When they asked him to come out, he refused, which prompted the police kick the door down, storm into the home and tased the suspect. But, when Smith came out to see what was happening in her own home, one of four to six officers asked her to turn around. Body cam footage that was police released this week shows there were only 40 seconds between asking the grandmother to turn around and her being sprayed in the face.

Smith was later hospitalized, but not before she said she was handcuffed, dragged to the police car and taken to jail, another Fox 23 story reported. Smith told Fox 23 that she never expected for a senior citizen to be treated so poorly by those who are supposed to protect and serve the community.

“Not with an old lady, old as I am and they come in there and do me like that, pepper spray,” …read more

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Police investigating a brawl on the campus of Cornell University that left an Ithaca College student dead and another Ithaca student injured are asking witnesses with cellphone video of the fight to come forward.

The students were stabbed around 2 a.m. Sunday during a large fight after several hundred college-age people attended a student-organized event at the Cornell student union, authorities said.

Officials identified the slain student as Anthony Nazaire, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in business administration from Brooklyn.

“He graduated from Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School, and at IC he was a member of the executive board of Brothers4Brothers, a student organization dedicated to empowering men of color on our campus,” said Ithaca College President Tom Rochon.

“I ask that you keep Anthony’s family, the student who was injured, and their friends and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers,” Rochon said.

Police did not identify any suspects in the stabbing, which happened as people were leaving an event organized by the Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Cornell’s Willard Straight Hall. They said they were interviewing witnesses and believe based on surveillance footage that some captured the killing on video.

“I hope they get caught and justice is done,” Nazaire’s mother, …read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT):

3:45 p.m.

Donald Trump is receiving criticism for his latest tweets, after NBA star Dwyane Wade‘s cousin was fatally gunned down near a Chicago school where she intended to register her children.

One person responded: “@realDonaldTrump Glad you’re not making this about you. Whew!”

Some criticized his record with African American voters, accusing him of trying to appeal to them too late. Originally he had spelled Dwyane wrong, but deleted the incorrect version, replacing it with a new tweet using the same wording. Trump has ramped up efforts to appeal to black and Hispanic voters in recent weeks as the polls show him slipping behind rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump later followed up with a second tweet sending the family his condolences.

___

1:45 p.m.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says Donald Trump can beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa by focusing on agriculture, pointing to his support for a renewable fuel standard important to the state’s corn growers.

Branstad told The Associated Press on Saturday that he’s going to personally deliver that message to Trump when they share a ride to a campaign stop at the …read more

Two men … in fact two brothers – Darwin Sorrells Jr., 26, and Derren Sorrells, 22 – have been charged in the shooting death on Friday of NBA star Dwyane Wade‘s cousin, Nykea Aldridge, police announced on Sunday.

At a news conference, Cmdr. Brendan Deenihan said Aldridge, a 32-year-old mother of four, was pushing her baby in a stroller near the school when two men walked up and fired shots at a third man but hit Aldridge in the head and arm instead. She had just dropped off passengers in the neighborhood.

Chicago’s top cop, Superintendent Eddie Johnson, said the suspects are an example of the city’s problem with repeat offenders, which he has spoken about frequently in recent months. Darwin Sorrells was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2013 on a gun charge and was released early on parole, while Derren Sorrells is a known gang member who also was on parole.

“They don’t care who they shoot and they don’t fear the consequences,” he said, noting as he has in the past that about 1,400 people are driving 85 percent of the city’s gun violence. He added that the city has gotten very good at …read more

“I hope this never happens to anyone else,”Nancy Wirths, 49, said in an interview with KSNW.

Wirths lives in Wichita, Kansas and received a hateful note that lambasted her family for merely existing in a mostly White neighborhood. Wirth is also White, but has bi-racial grandchildren who frequently spend time at her home.

Out of her nine grandchildren, six are Black. Wirth says the attack shook her to her core and she fears for her family’s safety.

The handwritten note, addressed to “resident,” began with the following:

“We have noticed there are some black children at your residence. Maybe you are running a daycare or these are your children. In either case, we have put our house for sale. This neighborhood does not need any blacks in it.”

The one page letter also goes so far to say that the writer was prompted to sell their house. “There is a reason for saying ‘The other side of the tracks.’ That is where these people belong,” continued the hateful note.

Wirths says she is devastated and is trying to find the strength …read more

Jurors on Wednesday took only eight minutes to deliberate the case of Martin Blackwell, a 48-year-old Georgia man accused of pouring hot water over his girlfriend’s son and his partner as they slept.

Blackwell was sentenced to 40 years in prison and found guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault, according to CBS. The victims, Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert, watched from the courtroom, still visibly nursing wounds from the May incident. Gooden is the son of Blackwell’s girlfriend, Kim Foster.

According to CBS, on February 12, Blackwell walked into the room where Gooden and Tolbert slept and poured a large pot of boiling water over the men. Prosecution lawyers say that as Tolbert jumped up howling in pain, Blackwell grabbed him saying, “get out of my house with all that gay.”

Lawyers for Blackwell acknowledge that he in fact commit the act, but say that his gesture did not come from a place of hate, rather saying Blackwell felt “disrespected” by the men’s relationship.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A quadriplegic man who admitted to trying to extort money from former Ohio State star and NFL player Christopher “Beanie” Wells has been sentenced to a year of house arrest after a judge concluded that imprisoning the defendant would be too costly for taxpayers.

Cleveland.com reports the judge on Wednesday told 29-year-old Patrick Griffin, of Akron, that he could still be sent to prison if he violates her terms. Griffin also was ordered to donate $10,000 to a charity.

Griffin says he understands that his condition doesn’t make him immune from consequences.

Griffin had pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act extortion. Prosecutors say he and a co-defendant tried to force Wells to pay them tens of thousands of dollars after Wells’ brother set up a drug deal where they lost money.